Tag: chahal Gurbaksh

Today I will be featuring an inspiring post about how one man(Gurbaksh Chahal) started a business from barely anything and built an empire out of it. While this site may be predominantly a mom blog, I do not forget the fact that there may be readers who do not fall into this main category but who for various reasons may want to start a home business.
To everyone who reads this post I say, if he can do it, so can you

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post please read my policies on the Blog.

Every telling of Chahal’s story begins the same way: Chahal was born in India but moved to the slums of San Jose with his family when he was one month shy of four.

A Sikh, Chahal wore a turban growing up and was bullied in school as a result. At one point, he claims, kids threatened him with a knife on the playground.

While his parents struggled to make ends meet, Chahal didn’t care about school and found his own way to do business. He was turned away from a McDonald’s job. He started buying and reselling printers on eBay.

Then, at 16, Chahal decided to start his own business. DoubleClick was “the big Kahuna” of internet businesses, Chahal says in his memoir, but he knew he could build a different business that tracked the number of clicks on an ad. He contracted with a programmer in London to build an ad-clicking program for him. To help get the gig, he created a fictitious name, Gary Singh, and said he was much older, according to his memoir.

Apple Ipad

Twenty-one months after he started Click Agents, ValueClick bought the startup in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $40 million.

The 18-year-old bought a Lexus and paid off his parents’ mortgage. His rags-to-riches story had happened in a blink of an eye.

In 2003, after Donald Trump rejected his application for “The Apprentice,” Chahal returned to the ad-tech business. The 21-year-old cofounded internet-advertising company Blue Lithium with Krishna Subramanian.

Chahal, meanwhile, used the success to explore other areas. MySpace was hot back in 2007, and Chahal wanted to launch his own social network called MingleNow, designed for club-goers and party people. Even this had Chahal’s Midas touch. MingleNow landed a partnership deal with Anheuser-Busch.

Within three years, Yahoo bought BlueLithium for $300 million. Chahal’s personal stake was valued at around $100 million. MingleNow shut down after the acquisition, but Chahal was just getting started.

That year was pivotal. He landed a book deal to detail “The Dream” — his story from a starting a company in his bedroom to selling his second company to Yahoo for $300 million.

In October, Chahal appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show — “He’s single!” she kept gushing twice — addressing the bullies of his past and the opulence of his present. They had a detailed conversation about his Lamborghini doors, only to swivel back to the subject of him crying when he got home from school.

Weeks later, Chahal was featured on Fox’s “Secret Millionaire.” The multimillionaire lived in a hotel in the Tenderloin neighborhood for a week, volunteering for neighborhood charities, including a battered-women’s shelter. By the end, he had donated more than $100,000 to charity.

He was also written up in Men’s Health as No. 7 on the list of the world’s fittest and richest men — one of the other techies on the list was PayPal co-founder Max Levchin — followed by an appearance on “Extra” as one of the most eligible bachelors. In his memoir, Chahal reveals the one show he promised not to do was “Dancing With the Stars.”

Condiment Bowls

That didn’t stop Chahal from seeking attention everywhere else. Chahal appeared on talk show after talk show, expounding on the world economic situation while talking about his fortune.

“What is the American Dream? That you can come from nothing and make something of yourself not once, not twice but three times, only to have all of it come crashing down from misinformation, that is spun wildly out of control into the world of make-believe and then goes viral into the blogosphere. We need to hold on to the American Dream, and reject those who would rather make it a nightmare,” he added.

Today, Gurbaksh Chahal’s story is one to keep an eye on. His rising fame, ability to build something out of nothing and keeping his empire alive is what many strive for in this day and age. He continues to inspire, uphold and take pride in his work both on and off social media. So what is your dream for you and your business? Do you hold the American dream for you and your family? How can you bring your business to life? leave your comments below